NH Foods Australia

OVERALL

Owned

JPN

Rating

Meat wholesaling

Formerly known as Nippon Meat Packers Australia. One of Australia's major beef processors. They export to over 34 countries and also supply the Australian domestic beef market. Operates 3 beef processing plants and a feedlot.

Company Assessment

This company operates feedlots. A feedlot is an intensive confinement animal feeding operation (CAFO) for cattle, much like a factory for 'battery chickens'. Each animal has 5 to 10 square metres of space in a pen of 50 to 200 cattle. The cattle are forced to stand and sleep in their own dung and urine, and endure extremes of weather (especially heat). Close confinement means a much higher risk of disease so antibiotic drugs are routinely used. Grain feed commonly causes their digestive systems to be acidic. Cattle spend up to a year in feedlots, where they are fattened up before slaughter.[Source 2011][More on Factory Farming]

According to data released by the Australian Tax Office in Dec 2018, this company was one of 2,159 local and foreign-based companies that paid no tax in Australia in 2016-17. Please note however that companies pay income tax on profits, not revenue (total income). While some companies use tax havens and loopholes to avoid paying their fair share of tax in Australia, other companies that paid no tax have perfectly legitimate reasons.[Source 2018][More on Finance]

The Coller FAIRR Protein Producer Index is a comprehensive assessment of how this sector is managing critical sustainability risks such as climate change, increasing biodiversity loss, land use change and the growth in antibiotic resistance. This company was rated as high risk.[Source 2018][More on Habitats]

In 2018, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) asked companies to provide data about their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change risk. Responding companies are scored across four key areas: disclosure; awareness; management; and leadership. This company received a CDP Climate Change Score of C.[Source 2018][More on Climate Change]

Nippon Meat Packers was embroiled in a beef mislabelling scandal in 2002. The company had falsely labelled foreign beef as domestic beef in order to gain government beef buy-back subsidies during Japan's mad-cow disease crisis.[Source 2002][More on Governance]